The Beach!!!

Today of course it took forever to get out of the house, but when we did, we headed to a town called Ceiba. Ceiba is where Roosevelt Roads is, a naval base that got shut down because they claimed that the training they were doing over there was giving people cancer. Anyway, they still have some army reserve units there and we finally were able to rent a minivan there. It is a shame that the base is closed because it is huge and a beautiful place. They had a hospital, nice lodging and brand spankin new barracks that were never lived in.

Well, there is a beach on post. It is beautiful! We stopped there for a while, the kids loved it. Isabelle would not get out of the water! They made sand castles and explored the shore. On the way home, Isabelle got an ear ache, I think she might have had water in her ear, and she cried for a while. We stopped at a small restaurant to eat fried foods like, papa rellena, which is a ball of fried mashed potato with meat in the middle, and empanadillas. They had all kinds of empanadillas, with lobster, shrimp, ground beef, pizza...... it was yummy.

After we got home, Vicky and shaughn stayed at the house with the kids while Edgar, Tasia, my dad and me went to Marshall's. It is so overwhelming!!! So much stuff that we can't get overseas, and stuff that is just so much cheaper here. I got the girls a pixie hollow pop up book.

There is a starbucks there so of course we stopped and got some. I tried the shaken iced tea in passion fruit, it was yummy, and after looking up the calories, I found out that it has no calories!!!

El Morro and Flying Kites!

On Sunday, we finally made it out to Old San Juan. There are eleven of us at my moms house, so it takes for ever to get ready and out of the house, especially with four small children. It was a beautiful day and very windy there in El Morro. El morro is a fortress, it goes back to 1519 and the Puerto Ricans used it to protect the island from seaborne enemies.

We drove around for ever and were stuck in traffic for a long time trying to find parking. It was so funny because there is a small town by the ocean that is the worst in Puerto Rico, it has the most drug trafficing in the island and as we were driving around, shaughn says " I wonder if any tourist accidently end up it the town?" Well, after driving and driving around we ended up going under a tunnel and finding parking in la Perla. We figured it was ok as long as we parked and got out of there as fast as we could, so we start walking up this hill and at the top some guy in a car asks Shaughn " Where are you going?" "Turn around and go back, this is were the drug dealer are." And that's how a tourist accidently stumbles in La Perla.

The first thing we did was get Piraguas, snow cones with yummy syrup. We sat under a tree and the shade was great, the piraguas were great! After that we walked over to the middle of the open field and started flying kites. There were tons of people flying kites, the wind was very strong. The kids flew the kites for about a minute and then Edgar, Vicky, and me ended up flying them. Vicky managed to get hers tangled with Edgar's.

We lounged around on the grass taking pictures and watching the kids run around it was great. We then walked over to the Big wall over looking the ocean and took in the view and took some pictures before heading back. Shaughn and my dad ended up going to get the cars and we waited at the top of the hill. It really was a great day.

We went to dinner to bonanza, a buffet. I had so much to eat! They had rice, beans, tostones, platanos maduros, patita de cerdo (pig's feet). Isabelle had sancocho, a stew with lots of root vegetables, she loved it. Kaitlyn had some white rice and chicken nuggets and fries.

Grandmas house

Yesterday we went to visit my grandma. It amazes me how my grandma still looks exacly thesame as the last time I saw her years ago. The house, the neighborhood, it all looks the same.Our childhood friend, Paito, still lives on the upstairs of his parents house, and he looks thesame. My grandma has chickens and all kinds of fruit and flowers around the house. The kidsthought it was great! They loved the chickens and picking the oranges and peppers from theirtrees, although my grandma was annoyed that they picked her oranges! The livingroom was theonly thing that was diffrent, she now has a flat screen hanging on the wall and modernfurniture. We drank really cold maltas, ever since we were kids, she always had them in the fridge for us, and we sat on the rocking chairs in the balcony while all the kids ran around the house.

Cousins ♥

Isabelle, Kaitlyn, Aleia, and Aiden

My brother showing the kids morivivir, it is a small plant that closes up when you touch it.

Aiden

Aleia

So, the one really good thing about this sudden trip to Puerto Rico is that the girls finally got to meet their cousins. It was love at first sight, they play and talk to each other like they have known each other their whole lives.

My brother has two beautiful kids, Aiden is four, and Aleia is three. They are both sweethearts. Aiden is so funny, he is always saying chicken butt. Today we saw chickens and Vicky says to him “Aiden, do you see a chicken butt?” And he says “ I see the whole chicken!” Kaitlyn and him get along the best, their both clowns! Aleia is such a cutie! She is very sweet and loving. The only time that I see her cry or wine is after she has woken up. Every other time she is in a great mood.

Travel

JFK
My new book and a Vanilla bean Frapucciono


Milano Airport
On Tuesday 24th we left Italy at 0430 in route to Malpena airport in Milano. We left to Puerto Rico to visit my biological father, who I have not seen in over 10 years. Well, he is very ill in the hospital and even though I have not seen hem in so many years, I would like to be by his side during this time. Thankfully the Army paid for me and my family to fly to Puerto Rico. We flew from Milan to NYC Kennedy airport. We landed in New York at 1:20pm and after claiming our luggage and checking them back in, we headed to the food court for some food. I had chinese food, bourbon chicken Yum!!! It had been over three years! The place was called Wok and roll. The girls had McDonalds. For the next four hours we sat around at the gate, played ds, made puzzles, and had starbucks! We boarded our plane to Puerto Rico at 8pm, right before we saw Daddy Yankee was also on our flight, there was a lot excitement on the plane. The flight was good, the girls slept the whole way and I watch The blind side. We finally arrived at San Juan at midnight were my parents were to pick us up. It was a very tiring trip, but worth it.

ok, a few updates, I lost one pound this past week. (Yay!!) I didn't exercise all last week but today I started the week with Power Pump.

Also, my daffodils that I planted last spring came out!!!! I was so excited to see them today. And Last but not least, we got rid of the mattresses in the girls room (sizzles ruined them by peeing on them) and moved all of the girls toys up there and the small white tv, so they have their playroom up there instead of the livingroom :)

Painting and Flying Kites

This weekend I tried to keep the girls as busy as possible. Saturday, they painted all morning. I used a roll of paper from ikea and put all their paint on the table and let them paint. They had a lot of fun.

Yesterday, we walked to post, had brunch at the DFAC, walked around the px, went to a park on post, got some kites and flew them at the field in villaggio. After that we went to the park for about an hour and the girls jumped on their friend's trampoline. They were so tired!!! It was a good day.

Progress Report

I've been slacking on the blog, so I decided to write a quick post on my progress. Since the 1st of Jan I have lost 10lbs!!! I am really excited and optimistic about loosing more weight. Weight Watchers is great, it is really easy to use. I have been doing power pump, which is a weight lifting class and my biggest looser work outs. That's pretty much it for now :)

These pictures are of Power Pump and Zumba. I was asked to take some for the gym's facebook page.